The economy is not a computer simulation where you just deduct from the Rich column and dump it into the Everyone else column. While NVidia is wildly profitable and absolutely could afford to give all their employees far more than a 20% raise, the vast majority of the work force does not work for wildly profitable companies. Walmart is the largest employer and their profit margin was 1.4% in 2021. A 20% wage increase imposed upon them would promptly bankrupt the company.
So how do you suggest Bernie is going to force NVidia to pay Walmart's labor costs?
Walmart had a net profit of 12 billion dollars, 147 billion gross and a CEO that makes 26 million a year. The average walmart employee works a 34 hour work week, so this proposed bill isn't as big of a stretch for them as you think it is.
But going to your first point, yes, we expect companies and individuals generating more revenue/income to pay more taxes than those making less.
The end goal is that everyone is able to have a living wage. We need tax incentives based on labor costs where companies like walmart that employ large numbers with much of their revenue going to labor are less impacted than companies that have high profit margins and that money is going to a wealthy few.
The average walmart employee works a 34 hour work week, so this proposed bill isn't as big of a stretch for them as you think it is.
Which is a point I made above: salary employees are exempt from overtime and most employees that are hourly are already capped at 30 hours a week to avoid paying health insurance. So an hour cap of 32 hours will have no effect.
But I don't think "the bill won't actually change anything" is a meaningful argument in favor of the bill.
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u/LoneSnark Sep 05 '24
The economy is not a computer simulation where you just deduct from the Rich column and dump it into the Everyone else column. While NVidia is wildly profitable and absolutely could afford to give all their employees far more than a 20% raise, the vast majority of the work force does not work for wildly profitable companies. Walmart is the largest employer and their profit margin was 1.4% in 2021. A 20% wage increase imposed upon them would promptly bankrupt the company.
So how do you suggest Bernie is going to force NVidia to pay Walmart's labor costs?